Castles are colossal, epic and full of history. Who does not know the fictional castles like Camelot, Greyskull or Hyrule, or real castles like the Muiderslot, Newark Castle or Kasteeltje Hattem (the smallest castle in the Netherlands)? Architectural marvels that anyone can admire. Now what if you create an abstract puzzle where you get to build a “realistic” castle? SmartGames serves your highness at their beck and call with the game Tower Stacks. Will you blow high from the tower or will your sod hut collapse?
Tower Stacks is easy to explain. You have several three-dimensional puzzle pieces in different shapes, with each puzzle piece containing castle walls and one castle tower with flag. Each puzzle variant (with different levels of difficulty) starts with a foundation, which consists of predetermined puzzle pieces. Then it’s up to you to literally build the height. But beware: although you can add multiple floors, no piece should partially protrude (like Dracula’s castle in the Castlevania games). The higher you go, the less area you have to build.
The first two difficulty levels of Tower Stacks (Starter and Junior) are very kid-friendly, because relatively more puzzle pieces are laid out at the beginning and a number of pieces are not included. Adult builders I recommend starting with Expert.
A few days ago, we played – AND reviewed – the puzzle game Perplex by SmartGames. In that abstract puzzle game, the idea was to place three-dimensional pieces in a hexagonal plane. The harder the puzzle chosen, the fewer pieces are already placed before you begin. In Tower Stacks, the difficulty is set in the same way. Whereas we found that Perplex tempts you to “gross out,” that is precisely not the case with Tower Stacks. Because Tower Stacks has a fun theme (medieval castles) and gameplay that fits the theme (the puzzle you have to lay out three-dimensionally and be constructionally possible), the game invites you to think carefully about you putting together your dream castle.
With the review of Tower Stacks, our SmartGames reviews come to an end. As far as I’m concerned, Tower Stacks is the most fun, because of its fun theme and the incentive to create three-dimensional castle puzzles – fun for young and old alike! Should you have already finished Tower Stacks, consider Cats in Boxes because of its kitschy puzzle pieces (but keep in mind that the game plays a bit more “messy”). Should abstraction be your preference, go for Perplex.
A fun puzzle hour comes “real estate” with Tower Stacks, an abstract puzzle with generous theme. Three cheers!
